Negotiating narratives surrounding children's mental health diagnoses: Children and their contribution to the discourse

Despite increasing numbers of children diagnosed with mental health disorders, there is limited research on how children come to understand these diagnoses in childhood. This study examines the retrospective accounts of emerging adults who were diagnosed with mental health disorders in childhood to better understand how they made sense of their diagnoses over time. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 42 emerging adults (ages 18 to 22) who were diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and/or bipolar disorder in childhood. Interviews elicited participants' experiences learning about their diagnoses and suggestions for how diagnoses should best be explained to children. Findings demonstrate that participants actively sought and obtained information about their diagnoses over time. They negotiated narratives from several sources, including parents, teachers, mental health professionals, peers, siblings, the media, reading materials, and the Internet. Many of those who embraced medical accounts of their diagnoses did so as they obtained in-depth medical information over time. Meanwhile, those whose parents were open and communicative without using medical narratives suggest it is possible to share information with children without utilizing the terminology of “disorder.” Participants emphasize the importance of being open with children and providing them assurances, explaining that their problems are legitimate, common, and “not their fault.” Implications for social work practice are discussed.     

Accomplishing family reunification for children in care: An Australian study

Whilst child protection systems are concerned with removal of children from their families in the interests of safety, the capacity of child welfare systems to return children safely to their families of origin is of central importance. The multidimensional standardised assessment tool, the North Carolina Family Assessment Scale—Reunification (NCFAS-R) was used by practitioners to assess family strengths and needs in case planning and reunification decision making. The current paper examined (1) whether NCFAS-R domain ratings at intake and closure differ by characteristics of parents and children; and (2) whether reunification is predicted by NCFAS-R score at closure.     

Public relations master's education deliverables: How practitioners and educators view strategic practice curriculum

A national sample of practitioners (PRSA members) and academics provided their perceptions of what graduate students of public relations should study (N = 463). Despite expectations of difference between practitioners and educators, they agreed that a master's program graduate should have knowledge of business and understand how globalization shapes public relations. Still, a master's of public relations program graduate should also write well, speak well, and have had some “capstone” experience.     

Sexual behavior in female transsexuals and lesbians

This study was designed to look at the role sexual arousal and behavior play in confirming or resolving gender identity confusion, and at how female‐to‐male transsexuals (FTs) and lesbians (Ls) differ in this area. Detailed interview data on sexual behavior from a clinical sample of 15 FTs compared to a matched research sample of 15 Ls are presented. The mean age for the FTs group was 21 years, 10 months and 23 years, 8 months for the Ls group. The two groups were matched by age, educational background and parental socioeconomic status. The results indicated that the majority of women in both groups had had sexual experience with men as well as women. All clearly preferred women as partners, but the FTs fantasized being men in encounters with women, while the Ls were completely identified women. The Ls sample tended to go through a heterosexual phase before they had their first relationship with another woman, which was typically not until approximately age 20. However, the FTs tended to have their first sexual relationship with a woman in early or middle adolescence. The two groups also differed in various aspects of sexual arousal and behavior, with Ls reporting a higher frequency of orgasms and being more at ease in engaging in intense and satisfactory sexual relations.

The primary value of this study has to be seen as hypothesis rendering. The conclusions are tentative because of the limited sample size. The data add to our knowledge on aspects of female sexuality in general, and the reported differences between the two groups will assist in formulating a differential diagnosis between FTs and Ls in clinical practice.     

Perceptions of efficacy in the use of contemporary film in social work education: An exploratory study

This article discusses the use of contemporary film in social work education, including the theoretical rationale for the inclusion of film from the perspective of narrative and adult learning theory as well as the application of the case method to the use of film. The student viewpoint and perspective is provided through the results of an exploratory research study with 109 Baccalaureate social work students who completed a survey questionnaire following a classroom activity involving a contemporary film. Analysis of the quantitative data and qualitative comments indicates that students believe that film is a beneficial adjunct to textbook and lecture content.     

International NGOs and National Regulation in an Age of Terrorism

This article examines the regulation of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and Japan to answer two questions. First, to what extent has the domestic institutional context facing INGOs changed following dramatic attacks by transnational terrorists on Western liberal democracies? Second, what effect has new counterterrorism legislation had on the organizational and strategic decisions of INGOs, and thus their locations and operations, since 2001? We argue that formal regulations on non-profits have changed less than expected, given widespread alarm about counterterrorism legislation in non-profit communities around the world. However, a new climate of uncertainty has hampered INGOs ability to adjust appropriately to their new institutional environment. Counterterrorism regulations have thus generated unintended consequences, including inefficiencies, redistribution of resources, and self-censorship that may outweigh the benefits for national security given the limited nature of much of the regulatory change.     

EAP Service Use in a Managed Behavioral Health Care Organization: From the Employee Perspective

Contemporary employee assistance program (EAP) services are typically provided in broad-brush programs delivered by large external vendors in a network model. Yet research has not kept pace with EAP evolution, including in terms of how EAP clients themselves view services. We surveyed a random sample of EAP service users from a national provider (361 respondents). About one-third of respondents reported getting help for workplace issues. Most learned about the EAP through employer communications such as the company website. The large majority reported that the EAP helped them "a lot" or "some," suggesting they valued this benefit.     

Interpersonal violence against people with disabilities: understanding the problem from a rural context

Interpersonal violence against people with disabilities is a significant social problem. Little attention has focused on the rural context and the relevance for understanding violence. Given the dearth of literature exploring interpersonal violence, disability, and rurality, a review of rural-focused literature on domestic violence, sexual violence, and elder abuse was conducted to identify themes that could provide insight into this problem for people with disabilities. Themes include geographic isolation, traditional cultural values and norms, lack of anonymity, lack of resources, and poor response of systems. Implications for understanding interpersonal violence against rural people with disabilities and for social work practice are discussed.     

A social choice theory of legitimacy

We develop a formal theory of legitimate collective choice. In our theory a policy choice is legitimate if the process through which the final choice was determined is consistent with some principle that can be used to (perhaps partially) rank the potential policy choices. The set of principles in any choice situation is taken to be exogenous, but a decision-making process is defined so as to deal with any nontrivial set of principles. Such a process is itself referred to as legitimate if it is guaranteed to select a legitimate outcome for each possible exogenous set of principles. We characterize the class of procedures that are legitimate, prove that legitimate policy decisions consistent with principles always exist and characterize the set of policy decisions that are legitimate for a any given set of principles. As we do not require the principles to be weak orders of the alternatives, our theory provides a notion of legitimacy that can be satisfied even when the guiding principles are potentially cyclic or incomplete. Accordingly, our theory illustrates one nontautological means by which majoritarian principles can be reconciled with legitimacy.     

Strategies for model‐revision in a high school genetics classroom

Recent proposals to improve science education (e.g., AAAS, 1989; Rutherford & Ahlgren, 1990) have stressed the importance of providing high school students with a broad knowledge base consisting of a body of core concepts and theories. Science educators (Duschl, 1990; AAAS, 1989; Peterson & Jungck, 1988) have also argued that while concepts are an important part of any education, no student's scientific education can be considered complete without a complementary knowledge of the nature of science, including an understanding of the tentative nature of scientific knowledge and how it is constructed. In this paper we describe a science classroom in which students are given opportunities to construct and use scientific knowledge to solve realistic genetics problems, and suggest that allowing students to engage in the production of scientific knowledge can support science learning.